Albania’s Parliament has issued a joint statement following the ruling announced in The Hague against former KLA leaders, stating that, according to the official position of the Albanian Parliament, a judgment cannot be used to rewrite the history of the war in Kosovo or to place the aggressor and the victim on the same level.
Joint statement after the ruling in The Hague
The reaction came one day after the ruling against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi, who were sentenced to a total of 81 years in prison.
Parliament Speaker Niko Peleshi stressed that, according to the joint statement, the ruling is considered deeply unfair toward the former KLA leaders and cannot undo the liberation character of Kosovo’s war.
Parliament defends the narrative of the liberation war
In the approved text, Parliament reiterates that the Kosovo Liberation Army’s war was, in its view, a war for freedom and liberation, born as a response to the systematic repression, violence, ethnic cleansing and crimes of Slobodan Milošević’s regime.
The Albanian Parliament presents the KLA as a decisive force in the resistance of the people of Kosovo and as an inseparable part of its path toward freedom, independence and statehood. In the same vein, the statement underlines that a judgment cannot erase the KLA’s sacrifice.
Accusations of double standards and political instrumentalization
Parliament also expresses concern over what it calls a double standard in dealing with the region’s bloody past. The statement mentions public and state honors for people convicted of war crimes, as well as the glorification of figures linked to genocide and ethnic cleansing, including Ratko Mladić.
Also, according to the Parliament’s official position, there is a risk that Serbia and Russia will use this process politically to relativize the crimes of Milošević’s regime and to delegitimize Kosovo’s liberation war, independence and statehood.
Call for institutional coordination with Kosovo
At the end of the statement, Albania’s Parliament expresses full solidarity with Kosovo, its institutions, as well as with Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi, together with their families.
Parliament calls for all legal means and further stages of the process to be used, arguing that the full standard of due process must be guaranteed. At the same time, institutions in Tirana and Prishtina are called on to coordinate their actions through institutional channels, while the statement also calls for the crimes committed by the Serbian regime in Kosovo to be denounced in international forums.
The Parliament’s joint statement places the Albanian Parliament in a clear political position in the face of the Hague ruling, rejecting the interpretation that, in its view, undermines the history of the Kosovo war.
It remains to be seen what weight this position will have on the diplomatic and legal levels, beyond the strong political message that emerged from the Parliament chamber.